Nan Goldin: Stories Retold

This weeks opening of the exhibition Nan Goldin: Stories Retold at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston couldnt be better timed. Goldin is known for her stark depictions of aggressive sexuality and drug addiction. Stories Retold, which includes the American museum debut of Goldins installation Sisters, Saints, and Sibyls, as well as the photographers 1986 magnum opus The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (including Nan and Brian in Bed), comes on the heels of a major controversy and a major award.

Last September, police in North England seized a Goldin photograph from the private collection of Elton John under suspicion that it violated UK child pornography laws. The image, GoldinsKlara and Edda Belly Dancing (which shows two young girls, one of them naked with her legs open), was scheduled to be shown at a forthcoming exhibition. In October, the photo, which had previously been shown in Houston, New York and other cities without objection, was deemed not to be indecent.